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by
Unknown Lamer
on Wednesday October 23, 2013 @12:50PM
from the mozilla-prepares-to-eat-google dept.

SmartAboutThings writes "LG has launched the Fireweb Firefox OS smartphone in a joint event with the Telefonica Vivo carrier. The Fireweb Firefox OS smartphone will be available for around $200 and will join the Alcatel One Touch Fire which Telfonia is launching in Brazil, starting today. Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay are the next countries to get it. The Fireweb smartphone is LG's very first Firefox OS device and it increases the small number of OEMs that have released Firefox OS devices on the market. The smartphone has a 4-inch screen with a 480 x 320 display, a 1GHz Qualcomm processor and 4GB internal storage that can be expanded with the microSD card slot by up to 32GB. It has a 5-megapixel cameras that comes with both autofocusing and an LED flash, which is a first for Firefox OS phones."
Hopefully an OEM releases a Firefox OS phone with beefier hardware, but you can't argue with the price.

The exploit was on the old version of Firefox that had the Tor Bundle. And Firefox OS seem to have a good push for upgrading it.

Open source security advantage in this is not being bug free (nor is closed source one), but that is auditable. Backdoors are harder to slip in and also more visible (so if you sneak one in a system that you use too, it can be used by others against you, something that you as a government don't want)

While the Tor Browser Bundle exploit was old, it is worth assuming that with the NSA's resources, they can find exploits in any new version of Firefox before they are discovered publicly and patched by Mozilla.

480 x 320 display, are you kidding me?
Looks like a phone launched 3 years ago.

Actually, this phone could work well for some prepaid markets in the US, too. Well, I should say it *could have* worked. I think it's too late now, but not by much - less than half a year.

I have an LG 840G that's roughly the same specs on tracfone for when I'm at my cabin. Tracfone seems to be the only thing that works consistently in the middle of the woods. Anyway, tracfone could have added that to its line of phones and I bet it would have sold like hotcakes. But as of last month, tracfone now offers a

Does Brazil even make smartphones? duties are designed to make the cost of imported goods prohibitive when compared to a local product. But if said local product doesn't exist, it's just a tax grab.

A golden opportunity for a local Brazilian to assemble phones awaits. Get the parts made in China, ship them duty free via a China-Brazil free trade agreement and assemble them in Brazil. Designed in Brazil and assembled in factories using cheap Brazilian labour should pass the locally made test, no?

To a large degree, you're paying for both freedom and lack of subsidies.

Android and iOS environments are full of apps that track you and your behaviors behind your back. Despite the lip service Apple and Google give to the practice, both of those OSes were fundamentally designed to allow that. (Otherwise, why isn't there finer-grained control over what information those applications can access? That would be pretty easy to do.)

Firefox OS is different. The company is independent, it is non-profit, it is dedicated to freedom, choice, privacy and security.

Otherwise, why isn't there finer-grained control over what information those applications can access?

What exactly did you have in mind? iOS already offers fine grained control over application access to things like contacts, your camera, location, etc. Also you are asked at the time the application wants to use each resource, not up front when you install the appâ¦

So just what do you have in mind that it does not do already? In fact iOS is very much designed around fine-grained access to syste

"What exactly did you have in mind? iOS already offers fine grained control over application access to things like contacts, your camera, location, etc. Also you are asked at the time the application wants to use each resource, not up front when you install the app"

Pardon me. You are correct, although it did not start out that way. Apple added that control later. So it was still originally designed in such a way as to allow intrusion.

That is incorrect. It always asked you about access to GPS from third party apps. Over time they added more permissions (like contacts and photos) but right from the start the system was designed so that access to some resources was protected. It's only the scope that has changed.

"That is incorrect. It always asked you about access to GPS from third party apps. Over time they added more permissions (like contacts and photos) but right from the start the system was designed so that access to some resources was protected. It's only the scope that has changed."

They ALL, ALWAYS have asked about gross GPS access. The discussion here was about "fine-grained control" over various kinds of location data.

They ALL, ALWAYS have asked about gross GPS access. The discussion here was about "fine-grained control" over various kinds of location data.

The original post was not about location. It was about personal data, period, from a variety of sensors. Just what is finer grained than "your location"? How exactly would you break it out beyond that and ask the user in a way that made sense?

I have, all along, asked for examples of what you or anyone else is thinking of when they use the term "fine grained access",

The original post was not about location. It was about personal data, period, from a variety of sensors. Just what is finer grained than "your location"? How exactly would you break it out beyond that and ask the user in a way that made sense?""

All right, if you want to nitpick:

It was about access to data, from sensors, in a fine-grained manner, AFTER the app was installed.

I might not have stated "after" specifically, but I felt it was pretty clear from the context. iOS and Android have always asked permission beforehand, so if that isn't what I meant, there would have been no point to my comment.

Otherwise, why isn't there finer-grained control [in Android] over what information those applications can access?

There's an experimental control panel called "App Ops" buried in vanilla Android 4.3 that allows turning individual permissions on and off for individual applications. It's not the folder- or file-level capability system that I'd prefer, but it is a step toward what various Android mods have been doing all along, and Android 4.3 users can download App Ops from Google Play Store [google.com].

Yeah, but that doesn't help most Android owners (like me), as the carriers/providers can't be bothered to release updates, and Cyanogenmod/AOSP/etc. only cover a small percentage of the market. Google doubtless could come up with *some* way to upgrade older versions of Android, but has opted for the short-term profit of forcing users to buy new phones and increasingly converting Android to closed source so nobody else can offer them updates, either.

Google doubtless could come up with *some* way to upgrade older versions of Android

I thought that's what Google Play Services package was for: a way to offer new libraries even to users of devices whose manufacturers refuse to issue updates past FroYo. It takes bootloader access to upgrade the kernel, and a lot of manufacturers aren't very willing to give bootloader access to the public for implied-warranty or radio regulation reasons, or they're bound by agreements with major U.S. carriers.

In Brazil the price for the nexus 4 would be between 300 and 600 USD , according to this:http://www.tudocelular.com/LG/precos/n2361/LG-Google-Nexus-4.html

According to this http://tecnologia.ig.com.br/2013-10-22/sem-alarde-lg-traz-primeiro-smartphone-com-firefox-os-para-o-brasil-por-r-129.htmlThe Fireweb phone costs about 205 USD. If acquired via contract , it goes down to 60 USD.

I don't know the specifics about the Brazilian Customs, but most countries' postal systems (and courier/distribution companies) go through customs, and you end-up paying the relevant local taxes.

If on top of that you have to deal with the red-tape it generates, and paying the processing fees (which when you import in bulk are diluted across the final price of the goods imported), some times it is just not worth it to go that route, or just marginaly so.

Yes, by law, the Brazilian equivalent of the IRS (literally, Federal Revenue Secretariat) has the right to inspect shipments at border control points. Sometimes they inspect, sometimes they don't. You usually get a note in the mailbox 'Your package is awaiting for collection at XYZ street, import duties R$ (obscene number here) must be paid'.

The features you talk about (local applications, copying files to the phone) are , mostly for "power users".This is a basic phone, with capabilities to interact with the web/cloud/etc..

The people who will be looking to this phone are those that aren't able (or willing) to spend the 300 to 600 USD that a Nexus 4 costs in Brazil, and still need to check their e-mail or interact with services (banking, government, etc...).

Offline web applications do run on the local computer. They just run inside the JavaScript virtual machine, just as Android applications run in the Dalvik virtual machine. For more info, put these keywords into your favorite web search engine: CACHE MANIFEST, localStorage, IndexedDB.

The application needs to be running on local computer. User needs to have full control of files without any "cloud" integration or any "social network" integration.

You get all of those things with packaged open web apps; stored locally, runs locally, has access to local resources. It's just like any other app. No network connection, "cloud" or "social network integration" required. You can find out more on Mozilla's website.

Just give a simple and plain operation where user can copy files as wanted and where wanted.

The level of control you get with FFOS should easily exceed your expectations.

Remember, it's not about this low-spec phone or even about FFOS, it's about *standards*. Mozilla wins when they force big players adopt important new standards. Mozi